German performer Siegbert Rampe has plunged deeply into the question of what instrument would have been used for the performance of Mozart's keyboard works in his own time in his ongoing series release of Mozart's complete keyboard works. Mozart's voluminous correspondence gives lots of hints as to when he encountered various keyboard instruments and how he used them. He probably heard the new fortepiano during his trip to Mannheim in 1777, and his sonatas of the late 1770s began to exploit its possibilities. Rampe bookends this CD with piano sonatas that focus on focus on two different sounds not possible on a harpsichord. The Sonata in D major, K. 284, is a big work that evoked the spectacular symphonic sound of the Mannheim court orchestra, while the Sonata in B flat major, K. 333, characterized by Rampe in his notes as "idyllic," has a newly lush sound, with slurs and, in Rampe's performance, sustained tones that create a dreamy atmosphere -- it sounds odd, but Rampe is persuasive.
In between are a miscellany of works of the kind that show up in series releases of this type -- a prelude and fugue pair and a reduction of a lot ballet, played on harpsichord, and some works of the 7-year-old Mozart. These are played on a clavichord, which according to some evidence was Mozart's instrument of choice for home use, at least during the first part of his life. These works, less than one minute long, are pretty slight, but the clavichord is fascinating in itself. Don't turn up your volume control when the clavichord tracks begin. The instrument is quiet in a way that nothing today can really be, and yet it has a strange, almost electronic sound.
There are other good recordings of the two sonatas included here, but Rampe gives rich, detailed performances that bring out what Mozart would have found novel in each one. The German label MDG delivers historically authentic sound design as well as historically authentic instrumental performance; the music was recorded in an old Cologne house with a strong sense of an eighteenth century recital room. Those interested in hearing Mozart on original instruments should listen to this disc, and to Rampe's others.
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